This past year was cray-cray. I cannot express that enough. In particular, the last six months have had me running around like a crazy person as I try to keep the lid on the pot.
I won’t go into detail, but let’s just say that a multitude of health issues have made 2021 a nightmare – the health issues belonging to my husband. It has been a domino effect from July on, and we’re still not out of the woods. Once your health is in jeopardy, it seems like everything stops. In a way, it does, but also in a way, it doesn’t. I still had to go to work, pay the bills, take care of life’s little responsibilities, and keep on top of my teaching and schoolwork. I can honestly say that this year I feel like a truly horrible teacher. I am barely keeping up with my responsibilities and am certainly not being very creative or fun. I feel like I am shortchanging my students because my attention is always being pulled by this “other stuff.”
I was really looking forward to Christmas break. We needed it – and some normalcy – something fierce. Imagine my non-surprise when my son announced on Christmas Eve morning that he felt “crappy.” This just as we were getting ready to throw the presents into the car and head up to MN to spend Christmas with my family. One home Covid test later revealed that he was positive for Covid. There’s one family Christmas canceled. A few days later, my husband started feeling crappy just a few days before we were supposed to travel to Chicago for our other family Christmas. There’s another family Christmas canceled after he too tested positive for Covid. And, lastly, because every story needs a great finish, I started showing symptoms of something a few days ago, which left me in bed feeling horrible on New Year’s Eve. Cancel that too, I guess. I did take two separate home tests and tested negative for both, so I do not know what I had — I mean have. Still not feeling the greatest as I write this.
As a result of all these health issues, all of our other fun hobbies have been pushed to the wayside. No band gigs. No record hunting. Not much antiquing. While my husband was in the hospital, I did manage to find a couple of antique stores around La Crosse, WI, and I made a couple of great scores there, one of them being a 1960’s panther with the sticker still on it. It’s not a lamp like some of the TV lamp panthers I have been collecting; it’s just a figurine, but it is beautiful.
It is strange how sometimes a random find will start a collector down a certain path. I had probably seen these panthers a million times in antique stores, but once I bought my first one, I started looking for them specifically, and I was amazed at the variety of figurines that could be found, including planters and TV lamps. It is now my goal to buy one in every color; I have black, red, and white; I need to find yellow and green.
I do want to spend more time updating this blog; writing is one of my stress relievers, and it’s also something I have kind of thrown to the wayside over the years. I’m not much for new year resolution, but I do know what I would like to do differently in my life. When life gets chaotic, it’s important to simplify. More writing. More reading. More calm. More peace.
Here’s to a much better 2022! <clink>
